A Reason To Catch Leaves
by teethlikedog
Summary: Tradition, superstition and something to wish for. [TakaoKai]


Not really shounen-ai, but it could be. Serirryu is Takao's bitbeast, Dragoon being the beyblade.

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_**A Reason to Catch Leaves**_

It's late autumn and Takao is standing under the maple tree, catching leaves.

This tree has stood outside his house for a long time. It was old long before Takao was born, and like many old things it has been burdened with a legend. This particular tree is the luck of the Kinomiya family, they say, and in the autumn you get a piece of that luck for every falling leaf you catch. Takao was told that story when he was too young to understand much more of the world than what he could see from his window, and he's been catching leaves ever since.

He's not a child anymore, of course, and he long since given up believing in fairytales. But it's tradition; and besides, ever since Seirryu leapt from that old sword to his beyblade, he's been taking legends a little more seriously.

There's another piece to the story too. Every so often a whole cluster of leaves will be blown off the tree by the wind; if you can catch them all before they touch the ground, you will be granted a wish. Takao tried this many times when he was younger, running and jumping frantically to gather the rusty leaves that danced just out of reach. But he never managed to catch all of them.

Today, the wind has tugged several clouds of leaves from the tree, sending them spinning and swirling earthwards. Takao hasn't attempted to grab them all, though, and not just because he's too old to believe in those stories anymore. He has a bitbeast now, like he's always wanted, and he's on his way to the World Championships with his team; soon, he'll be the most famous beyblader in the world. What else could he think of to wish for? He could wish to be a world champion, but that would feel like cheating - and besides, he knows he's good enough to make it on his own.

Maybe the reason that he's never been able to catch all the leaves is because he's never wanted anything badly enough. Maybe wishes are reserved for things that you want desperately, from somewhere so deep inside yourself that you hardly know it's there. Maybe you can only wish for something that's near enough to impossible to make wishing worthwhile.

Or maybe not. It's not as if he really believes in all this stuff, anyway.

Another leaf drops from its stem, drifting slowly downwards. Takao grasps it and stuffs it in his pocket with the others he's caught; it's also tradition that he keeps the leaves he catches, pressing them dry between the pages on an encyclopedia. He has a whole box full of them, red ghosts of autumns past.

"What are you doing?"

It's Kai, early as usual for training - the others won't be here for another ten minutes - and he stares at Takao with eyes that are the same colour as the maple leaves. Except the leaves are vivid and lively even in their fall towards death, while Kai's gaze is blank, devoid of warmth.

"Catching leaves," Takao replies, a little embarrassed but determined not to show it in front of his captain. "It's sort of a family tradition."

Kai continues to stare at him for a moment, then walks past without a word, heading inside to begin training. Takao watches him go, and sighs under his breath. That guy really needs to lighten up a bit. He'd be a lot less of a pain if he did. Maybe he might even be able to see his team mates as friends, rather than something he's been burdened with. As it is, he looks at them as if he'd just scraped them off the bottom of his shoe.

And he never smiles, not really. He has a nice face - Takao supposes that girls would find him good-looking - but the alternating scowls and smirks ruin it; ugly, unnatural expressions that Takao hates to see. If only he would just smile, now and again, he might be a lot happier. If only.

The others will be here soon, but Takao hopes for one good gust of wind before they arrive. This time, he'll catch every leaf, he's sure of it.

He's thought of something to wish for.


End file.
